STATUS OF WOMEN

Resolution

Be it resolved
that population problems be addressed through the enhancement of the status
of women throughout the world.

Extensive
research has shown that improvements in the lives of adolescent girls
translates into improvements in their health as well as that of their
children. Reductions in fertility result in high returns to the overall
economic productivity. In addition, the decisions this generation makes
and the way they live their lives will shape the world of the future.
Despite the validity of this research, there exists virtually no setting
where a broadly conceived strategy is in place to make investments in
adolescent girls and offer them social and economic alternatives and identities
apart from becoming wives and mothers. The United Nations and affiliated
organizations including UNICEF, UNFPA, UNDP, UNIFEM, UNAIDS and WHO in
cooperation with NGOs (Non Governmental Organizations such as OXFAM and
the Red Cross) must devise comprehensive interventions to increase the
status of women through increased access to education, improved livelihood
prospects, leadership opportunities and community responsibilities. A
comprehensive plan could include the following possibilities:

Educate
girls about their health and assist them in meeting these needs, including
reproductive health and choices.

Provide
education and career opportunities for girls and women

Improve
girls' income generating skills and livelihoods (young women are disproportionately
represented in emerging wage-earning opportunities but little effort
has been made to make these opportunities as positive as possible).